Erich FrommThinkers

Advertising is today, such that it appeals to emotion rather than reason like a kind of hypnoid suggestion.

Alienation is, in modern society, the now almost total loss of ownership of the human being owing to the fact that he is owned by his creations, and has lost ownership of himself.

Alienation is a loss of the sacred. Optimism is an alienated form of faith, just as pessimism an alienated form of despair.

Anxiety's source is always separation.

Approval is at root about the question "am I loved?" and unbeknownst to the asker, is in fact really a version of the question 'Can I approve' or "am I able to love?''.

Authoritarianism is an existential threat to humanity. Human history began with an act of disobedience and it is not unlikely that it will be terminated by an act of obedience.

Authority is (as irrational authority) always built upon the buttresses of power on the one side and fear on the other.

Authority is not a quality one person 'has,' in the sense that he has property or physical qualities. Authority refers to an interpersonal relation in which one person looks upon another as somebody superior to him.

Boredom is (as not knowing what to do with oneself and one's life) the worst form of mental suffering.

Boredom is nothing but the experience of a paralysis of our productive powers.

Capitalism is a system whereby man does not only sell commodities, he sells himself and feels himself to be a commodity.

Capitalism is a system where any person still capable of suffering over the suffering of others and who has not become a thing (i.e. who has not acquired fully the having mode of existence) cannot help feeling lonely, powerless, and isolated.

Capitalist society 1s 2rinciples are acquisition, profit, and property, which produces a social character oriented around having, and once the dominant pattern is established, nobody wants to be an outsider, or indeed an outcast... in order to avoid this risk everybody adapts to the majority, who have in common only their mutual antagonism.

Central relatedness is perceiving another from a place of core brotherhood, from (center to center), rather than in terms of surface differences (periphery to periphery).